Friday, March 22, 2002

Many Catholics are disappointed that the Pope's annual letter to
priests yesterday made only passing and indirect reference to child
abuse by priests, and coverups of that abuse by the church hierarchy.
They may be interested in a subsequent press conference concerning the
letter by the Pope's spokes-Cardinal, Dario Castrillon Hoyos, which shows
the depth of the Vatican's concern:

At the news conference, the cardinal had at first said
he wanted to hear all the questions reporters had before answering. He
was then peppered with various inquiries: Why hasn't the pope himself
spoken out on the sex issue? Was he being kept informed about the
specific allegations?

But then, after hearing all the questions, Cardinal Castrillón
pulled out a two-page statement and read it.

That statement said the pope had already dealt with the scandals,
and referred to a one-paragraph apology to victims in a recent
document on a bishop's conference held several years ago.

The cardinal said he could not deviate from his prepared remarks
because "in this particularly difficult moment, I cannot improvise."

The Cardinal was indeed very concerned about a properly
measured response in this difficult moment --- the moment of the
release of a letter to priests:

When one reporter at the news conference called out, "We
had specific questions, Eminence," the cardinal responded by saying
that the correct focus of the pope's letter was not the scandals at
all. The letter was, in fact, mostly a meditation on the sacrament of
Penance, a topic that drew no questions from reporters.

He did nevertheless offer two unscripted comments. One expressed
full support for Boston's Cardinal Law, who is now known to have
shuffled
several known abusers from parish to parish
even after court settlements regarding their earlier abuse
promising they would never get another parish assignment.
He also
observed that "It's already an X-ray of the problem that so many of the
questions were in English", before an aide looked at his watch and
announced that it was time to go, at which point the two stalked off
in a huff. (I guess the Vatican is too traditional to use fake calls to
pagers as a way of getting out of awkward spots).

So lay Catholics, take heed that the hierarchy is taking all the
notice of the problem that it considers appropriate. As I've observed
before, if you can't trust a Cardinal, who can you trust?